About OER
Open educational resources (OERs) are free digitized materials offered to educators, students, and self-learners under a Creative Commons (or other "open") license that allows users to copy, use, adapt, and redistribute for educational and research purposes.
Works in the public domain also fall into the category of OERs and are free to use by the public.
To encourage educators to embrace the openness of OERs, a framework known as the 5Rs was established to define the rights of open content and provide guidance on how to use these resources. These rights are maintained by open licensing organizations such as Creative Commons, enabling creators to claim how their work can be used publicly.
| Retain: | Make and own copies of the resource indefinitely. |
| Reuse: | Use the resource in a variety of ways. |
| Revise: | Adapt, modify and improve the resource. |
| Remix: | Combine the resource with other resources to create a new work. |
| Redistribute: | Share the resource with others. |
Source: David Wiley. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Brief History of OERs
When OERs were introduced to the education world in 2002, skeptics questioned whether an open resource model would work. Faculty, college administrators, and others were concerned about whether OERs could match the quality and authority of textbooks and supplemental materials published by established textbook providers.
In the following years, as more organizations and institutions started open publishing programs and Creative Commons began its licensing platform to certify and kick-start the open licensed model, some educators still questioned how effective OERs could be and whether they could live up to their promise as free or low-cost replacements for traditional textbooks.
Today, evidence is starting to mount that OERs can positively impact the educational system, from K-12 through postgraduate programs. And these impacts are both financial and performative.
Why Use OERs?
Many educators, academic leaders, students, policymakers, and others initially advocated using OERs in higher education because of the cost savings for students and families offered by open resources. The expense of traditional textbooks and supplementary materials continued to rise throughout the 1990s and 2000s, costing students, on average, $1,240 per school year, according to The College Board (2019).
Research showed that many students took fewer classes to afford their textbooks or did not purchase some textbooks at all, hoping to keep up by borrowing other students' materials or purchasing used editions. In a survey of 21,000 students in 2018, 64.2 percent of responders indicated that they did not purchase a required textbook for a class due to price, and another 42.8 percent said that they took fewer classes due to the high cost of textbooks and other learning materials (Florida Virtual Campus, 2018).
Benefits of OERs Beyond Cost Savings
As OERs became increasingly available during the 2000s and expanded worldwide, higher education institutions began to adopt OERs into their courses—even offering "zero textbooks" classes. With the growth in OERs, educators began to realize that the benefits went beyond saving money for students.
Driven by innovative faculty, educators began adapting OERs for their purposes, creating original course content that involved and engaged students in ways textbook reading and practice did not. In the process, teachers began to assess the materials and learning outcomes of their courses more deliberately because they now had the freedom to adapt, modify, and correlate those resources in a more targeted way.
References
College Board. (n.d.). Trends college pricing - College Board research. https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing
Florida Virtual Campus, Office of Distance Learning & Student Services. (2018, December 20). 2018 student textbook and course materials survey. https://dlss.flvc.org/documents/210036/1314923/2018+Student+Textbook+and+Course+Materials+Survey+-+Executive+Summary.pdf/3c0970b0-ea4b-9407-7119-0477f7290a8b
Information & Resources
Copyright
Open educational resources (OERs) are free digitized materials offered to educators, students, and self-learners through an open license that allows users to copy, use, adapt, and redistribute for educational and research purposes.
It is important to pay attention to the type of copyright assigned to an OER by its author and to use the OER in strict accordance to its stipulations. In order to facilitate their use, modification, and distribution, many OERs have flexible copyright licenses from organizations such as Creative Commons; these licenses provide varying amounts of protection, ranging from “all rights reserved” (full copyright) to “no rights reserved” (public domain).
Click to see information on the types of CC Licenses.
Accessibility
To protect individuals with disabilities, federal laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act require public and private higher education institutions to ensure that digital materials are accessible by all students, including those students with disabilities. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) serve as an industry standard and provide specific recommendations for improving accessible web-based content.
It is part of the university's mission and core values to provide open access to higher education and equal opportunity for students with disabilities. More broadly, designing digital content and systems to be equitable and easy to use for all students ensures fair treatment, incorporates diverse perspectives, and enhances the learning environment.
Research shows that OERs are as effective and of the same quality as textbooks in terms of student engagement and performance (Hilton, 2016). In addition, faculty members have found quality OERs more effective in supporting diverse learner needs and promoting an inclusive learning environment, in part through the ability of faculty and others to customize course content and improve alignment to learning outcomes.
OER use also plays a role in removing barriers to student success. The University of Hartford and other institutions use OERs as one way to address the needs of low-income and underserved students, who are at a disadvantage with peers who can afford textbooks more easily. OER use is seen as an effective way to ensure that all students, regardless of economic status, have the resources they need to succeed.
Hilton, J., III. (2016). Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Educational Technology Research and Development 64(4): 573–590. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-016-9434-9
As with any educational resource, there are both advantages and disadvantages associated with using OERs in the classroom.
Advantages of using OERs include:
- expanded access to learning. Students anywhere in the world can access OERs at any time, and they can access the material repeatedly.
- scalability. OERs are easy to distribute widely with little or no cost.
- modify course resources to better align with learning outcomes. Unlike all rights reserved content, OERs can be modified—excerpted, reorganized, remixed, or revised—to better support the learning objectives of each section of a course.
- augmentation of class materials. OERs can supplement textbooks and lectures where deficiencies in information are evident.
- enhancement of regular course content. For example, multimedia material such as videos can accompany text. Presenting information in multiple formats may help students to more easily learn the material being taught.
- increase student interaction with course resources. Students can interact directly with OERs in a way that commercial textbooks don’t allow. For example, students can be directed to modify, expand, and/or remix course OERs based on their own research and findings. Such interaction increases critical thinking and writing skills that passive reading and memorization don’t address.
- quick circulation. Information may be disseminated rapidly (especially when compared to information published in textbooks or journals, which may take months or even years to become available). Quick availability of material in many subject areas increases the timeliness and/or relevance of the material being presented.
- less expense for students. The use of OERs instead of traditional textbooks or course packs, etc. can substantially reduce the cost of course materials for students.
- showcasing of innovation and talent. A wide audience may learn of faculty research interests and expertise. Potential students and donors may be impressed, and student and faculty recruitment efforts may be enhanced.
- ties for alumni. OERs provide an excellent way for alumni to stay connected to the institution and continue with a program of lifelong learning.
- continually improved resources. Unlike textbooks and other static sources of information, OERs can be improved quickly through direct editing by users or through solicitation and incorporation of user feedback. Instructors can take an existing OER, adapt it for a class, and make the modified OER available for others to use.
Disadvantages of OERs include:
- quality issues. Since many OER repositories allow any user to create an account and post material, some resources may not be relevant and/or accurate.
- extra effort required to adopt OERs. Adopting OERs in the classroom involves additional work on the part of faculty, instructional designers, editors, librarians, and others in order to find the OERs, adapt/modify them, check them for accessibility, verify any copyright issues, publish the resources in the institution’s LMS, and so forth. These are issues that many colleges and universities have little experience with.
- lack of human interaction between teachers and students. OER material is created to stand alone, and since self-learning users may access the material outside of a classroom environment, they will miss out on the discussion and instructor feedback.
- language and/or cultural barriers. Although efforts are being made to make OERs available in multiple languages, many are only available in English, limiting their usefulness to non-English speakers. Additionally, not all resources are culturally appropriate for all audiences.
- technological issues. Some students may have trouble using some OERs if they have a slow or erratic internet connection. Other OERs may require software that students don’t have and that they may not be able to afford.
- static formats. Some OERs are published in digital formats that make it hard to download, access, and modify the content.
- intellectual property/copyright concerns. Since OERs are meant to be shared openly, the “fair use” exemption from the U.S. Copyright Act ceases to apply; all content put online must be checked to ensure that it doesn’t violate copyright law.
- sustainability issues. Since OER creators generally do not receive any type of payment for their OER, there may be little incentive for them to update their OER or to ensure that it will continue to be available online.
Copyright
Creative material is protected by US (and international) copyright law. Traditional Copyright equals "All Rights Reserved" by the author/creator or rights-holder. Rights-holder needs to be contacted for legal use, or argument for Fair Use/Educational Use/TEACH Act must be made.
*Please note that NOT all "academic use" is acceptable under copyright law! Contact your librarians if you have questions about the legal use of copyrighted material!
Public Domain
Material that has "fallen out of copyright" or aged out is considered to be public domain. Anyone can now use public domain material in whatever ways they wish.
Creative Commons
Creative commons is open licensing that means "some rights reserved" -- depending on the type of licensing, sharing and reuse may be permitted without seeking the rights-holder's permission. Click to see information on the types of CC Licenses.
A Quick Guide to Open Educational Resources (OERs) by Georgia State University Library is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.
Where Do I Find OERs?
How to Find and Evaluate OER by Abbey Alder from YouTube is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
How Do I Determine My Search Strategy?
Online Research: Tips for Effective Search Strategies by Sarah Clark from YouTube is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
What Are Good Strategies for Using OERs in My Course?
Open Dialogues: How to Engage and Support Students in Open Pedagogies by Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, University of British Columbia from YouTube is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Evaluate OER
Here are a few steps you might take in the evaluation process. If this process seems lengthy, think about the process you follow to review textbooks and other materials for your course. You can use a similar or modified evaluation process.
- That the content under consideration covers the subject area appropriately
- That the content of the OER is accurate and free of major errors and spelling mistakes
- That the license of the content can be used or altered for the course's needs
- That the OER is clearly written and appropriate for the students' level of understanding
- That the accessibility of the content is appropriate for all students
Examples of rubrics for evaluating OER are available below:
Open Textbook Network Review Rubric
This is the review rubric that is used in the Open Textbook Network's Library, developed by BCcampus.
Faculty Guide for Evaluating OER [pdf]
Developed by BCCampus OpenEd Resources (BCOER), this document provides a checklist of traits to look out for in OER.
Achieve's Rubrics for Evaluating OER [pdf]
Achieve.org has developed a rubric with 8 core principles found in high quality OER.
ISKME's Open Educational Practice Rubric
This rubric defines a set of open educational practices that help educators to advance a classroom and school culture of open education and to advocate for the potential benefits of open educational resources (OER) in the context of continuous improvement. The rubric is intended to guide educator practice in working with OER to ensure that every student has the opportunity to engage in learning effectively. The rubric supports educators in accessing, curating, evaluating, and adapting OER in response to students’ particular needs, interests, and contexts, to author and share original or remixed resources, and to disseminate approaches to the implementation of those resources for future OER users to benefit from.
Chapter 11: Rubric Category: Practitioners
In: OER Equity Blueprint
Open Education Resources Evaluation Rubric
Checklist for Evaluating Open Educational Resources (OER)
Accessibility
Besides their general quality, the accessibility of OER is also an important factor to consider, especially in light of the online nature of most OER. Information about creating and evaluating the accessibility of OER is listed below.
OER Accessibility Toolkit
The goal of the Accessibility Toolkit is to provide the resources needed so that each content creator, instructional designer, educational technologist, librarian, administrator, teaching assistant, etc. has the opportunity to create a truly open and accessible textbook.
The Web Accessibility Initiative
This page from the Web Accessibility Initiative provides information about creating and hosting accessible content online.
WebAim: WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
This tool provides accessibility information for specific webpages. Paste a URL to see how accessible the website is, based on WebAim's ratings.
Build Open Texts and Courses
Brutte College Introduction to Open Educational Resources
The materials Include OER online modules targeted at faculty. The modules consist of webinars and online materials designed to teach participants how to identify resources with a Creative Commons license and what can be done with those works. The modules also include the advantages and disadvantages of OERs, how to research and analyze OER repositories, how to effectively search for OERs, and how to create new OERs by remixing existing open resources.
Finding Free and Open Resources
Presented by Affordable Learning Georgia, this online tutorial includes OER modules that cover defining open resources and OERs, open licensing and public domain, Creative Commons, finding OERs, GALILEO and USG Library Resources, and evaluating open resources.
Introduction to Open Educational Resources [Archived]
This learning module is provided by OpenStax. It provides material on the advantages and disadvantages of OERs and how to locate them. There is also a discussion of fair use and the TEACH Act. Creative Commons licensing and public domain sources are also discussed. In addition, the module explains delivery, storage, and organization of OERs.
Making the Transition to Open: The easy way to create license, and share free materials (K-12/HE)
Hosted by the Canvas Network, this self-paced online course is targeted at educators and faculty and covers the following topics: how to identify OERs, review of the six Creative Commons licenses, how to write attributions, incorporating OERs into the curriculum/course work; creating new OERs, and getting permission to use closed content in an open resource.
Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction OER Faculty Workshop
This faculty-oriented OER workshop is divided into two parts—"Part 1: The Easy Way to Create, License, and Share Free Materials," and "Part 2: Exploring the Possibilities of Open Educational Resources." Part 1 includes an extensive module on how to create and share OERs, and Part 2 has one on how to use OERs in an open classroom.
The OER Starter Kit
This is an openly licensed OER textbook published by Iowa State University Press. The book is divided into five sections, including "Getting Started," "Copyright," "Finding OER," "Teaching with OER," and "Creating OER."
OpenCI Bootcamp
This is a five-day workshop on OERs in higher education. The modules cover such topics as affordability and student success, discussion of OERs, searching for OERs, using OERs, and reflections on open pedagogy.
Open Educational Resources (OER)
Skills Commons is a free online open library that provides links to open learning materials. Some of the materials link to sites that explain how to locate OERs and how to use OERs.
Open Education Leadership Program
This SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Open Education Leadership program extends over two semesters and provides instruction on how to create and adopt OERs. The module also covers basic principles of OERs as well as information on copyright, open licensing, and publishing. In addition, the module provides practical experience planning and accessing OERs.
Washington State OER Modules
This self-paced course provides 10 modules on how to use OERs. Module topics include the meaning of open educational resources and the concepts of copyright, open licensing, and public domain. In addition, the course distinguishes between the different types of Creative Commons licenses and provides a module on accessibility.